Trump Set to Terminate Syria Sanctions Program, White House Says
The move is part of an effort to 'promote and support the country's path to stability and peace,' Leavitt said. 'He's committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors.'
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South Korean President Lee will travel to Washington for Aug. 25 meeting with Trump
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's new President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington later this month to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, Lee's office said Tuesday, for talks on trade and defense cooperation in the face of nuclear-armed North Korea and other threats. Their Aug. 25 summit will follow a July trade deal in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15% from the initially proposed 25% and to apply the same reduced rate to South Korean cars, the country's top export to the United States. South Korea also agreed to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy and invest $350 billion in the country, and the leaders could use their meeting to discuss expanding cooperation in key industries such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding, Lee's spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said. The meeting also comes amid concerns in Seoul that the Trump administration could shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea and possibly move to reduce it as Washington shifts more focus on China. Lee and Trump will discuss strengthening the allies' defense posture against growing North Korean threats, and also developing the partnership into a 'future-oriented, comprehensive strategic alliance' to address the changing international security and economic environment, according to Kang, who didn't elaborate on the specific issues to be addressed. Dating back to his first term, Trump has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the 28,500 American troops stationed on its soil. Recent comments by key Trump administration officials, including Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, have also suggested a desire to restructure the alliance, which some experts say could potentially affect the size and role of U.S. forces in South Korea. Under this approach, South Korea would take a greater role in countering North Korean threats while U.S. forces focus more on China, possibly leaving Seoul to face reduced benefits but increased costs and risks, experts say. The Associated Press Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
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Australia's Albanese says Netanyahu 'in denial' over suffering in Gaza
By Alasdair Pal SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was "in denial" about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a day after announcing Australia would recognise a Palestinian state for the first time. Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at next month's United Nations General Assembly, Albanese said on Monday, a move that adds to international pressure on Israel after similar announcements from France, Britain and Canada. Albanese said on Tuesday the Netanyahu government's reluctance to listen to its allies contributed to Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state. "He again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people," Albanese said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC, recounting a Thursday phone call with Netanyahu discussing the issue. Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state is conditional on commitments received from the Palestinian Authority, including that Islamist militant group Hamas would have no involvement in any future state. Albanese said last month he would not be drawn on a timeline for recognition of a Palestinian state, and has previously been wary of dividing public opinion in Australia, which has significant Jewish and Muslim minorities. But the public mood has shifted sharply after Israel said it planned to take military control of Gaza, amid increasing reports of hunger and malnutrition amongst its people. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched across Sydney's Harbour Bridge this month calling for aid deliveries in Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsened. "This decision is driven by popular sentiment in Australia which has shifted in recent months, with a majority of Australians wanting to see an imminent end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said Jessica Genauer, a senior lecturer in international relations at Flinders University. Neighbouring New Zealand has said it is still considering whether to recognise a Palestinian state, a decision that drew sharp criticism from former prime minister Helen Clark on Tuesday. "This is a catastrophic situation, and here we are in New Zealand somehow arguing some fine point about whether we should recognise we need to be adding our voice to the need for this catastrophe to stop," she said in an interview with state broadcaster RNZ. "This is not the New Zealand I've known."
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Trump signs order to extend China tariff truce by 90 days
US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire. The White House's halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10. "I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. The truce on steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday. While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other's products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them. As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 percent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10 percent. Those rates will now hold until November -- or whenever a deal is cut before then. Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce. China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10-percent duty, the report said. It would also "take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration," Xinhua reported. In the executive order posted Monday to its website, the White House reiterated its position that there are "large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits" and they "constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States." The order acknowledged Washington's ongoing discussions with Beijing "to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship" and noted that China has continued to "take significant steps toward remedying" the US complaints. - Trump-Xi summit? - "Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions," warned William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He believes China sees its leverage over rare earth exports as a strong one, and that Beijing will likely use it to pressure Washington. US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the current extension is "critical to give the two governments time to negotiate an agreement" providing much-needed certainty for companies to make plans. A trade deal, in turn, would "pave the way for a Trump-Xi summit this fall," said Asia Society Policy Institute senior vice president Wendy Cutler. But Cutler, herself a former US trade official, said: "This will be far from a walk in the park." Since Trump took office, China's tariffs have essentially boomeranged, from the initially modest 10 percent hike in February, followed by repeated surges as Beijing and Washington clashed, until it hit a high of 145 percent in April. Now the tariff has been pulled back to 30 percent, a negotiated truce rate. Even as both countries reached a pact to cool tensions after high level talks in Geneva in May, the de-escalation has been shaky. Key economic officials convened in London in June as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers met again in Stockholm last month. Trump said in a social media post Sunday that he hoped China will "quickly quadruple its soybean orders," adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States. China's exports reached record highs in 2024, and Beijing reported that their exports exceeded expectations in June, climbing 5.8 percent year-on-year, as the economic superpower works to sustain growth amid Trump's trade war. Separately, since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent "reciprocal" tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair. This surged to varying steeper levels last Thursday for dozens of economies. Major partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea now see a 15-percent US duty on many products, while the level went as high as 41 percent for Syria. The "reciprocal" tariffs exclude sectors that have been targeted individually, such as steel and aluminum, and those that are being investigated like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. They are also expected to exclude gold, although a clarification by US customs authorities made public last week caused concern that certain gold bars might still be targeted. Trump said Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, without providing further details. The president has taken separate aim at individual countries such as Brazil over the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup, and India over its purchase of Russian oil. Canada and Mexico come under a different tariff regime. bur-bys/sla/bjt Sign in to access your portfolio
